[Writing]My Literature Stuff

[ThePortalGuru]

So yeah this is basically where I'm posting my stuff like it good okay let's start this off.

Junk Mail

Jared Tennon worked full-time as a banker. His life was—on the whole—quite a boring one. Off to work at 6 A.M., back from work at 9 P.M., dinner at 9:30, watch T.V. at 10, check inbox/empty spam folder at 10:30, go to bed at 11, repeat. The only thing that happened yo Jared that was particularly out of the ordinary began on Friday, 2 weeks before his 5th anniversary of him and his wife Claire's wedding. Through the process of looking through and emptying his spam folder that night, he came across a rather odd piece of mail:
-------------
To: Jared Tennon<jtennon@firstnational.com>
From: Cf01*9<:(@16859.23>
Subject: :(
-------------
Attached was a picture of the corner of a dark grey room that looked somewhat similar to his. Jared moused over the picture to find a link to a site with the address "getweddinggearfree.com". He went to delete the e-mail, seeing as it was probably just some cryptic marketing technique or virus link. Upon clicking the "confirm delete" button, the computer screen went completely blank. Startled, Jared bent down and turned the computer on and off. Instead of being greeted with the usual Intel logo at start-up, the following symbol was displayed.

:(

Jared frantically clicked and pressed keys to try and get the frown off of the otherwise black screen, but the eerie colon-parenthesis combination wouldn't move. Finally, a small bit of incomprehensible text was flawshed on the screen, and the window with Jared's e-mail was restored. Jared was greatly confused. He tried to exit the godforsaken spam folder to get to his inbox, but the browser just put up a white page with the message "404 NOT FOUND" in large bolded lettering. The same message was displayed for every other web page he tried to visit. His spam folder was the only web page that was displayed properly. Jared decided to give his computer a day to cool off.

The next day, he went to his computer-savvy friends for advice. They were left completely stumped after he finished explaining the problem. They'd never heard of a virus like the one Jared had experienced. "The only thing I can suggest is to either use your laptop or get a new computer altogether," said one of them.

That night, Jared avoided using his desktop computer. He sat down on the couch in his living room, opened his laptop, and turned it on. His eyes went wide. There, in the center of the screen, was this:

:)

Jared slammed the laptop shut, got up from the couch, and began walking quickly over to his bedroom. He hadn't gotten more than 3 feet out of the living room when he was stopped cold by a familiar sound. "You've got mail!" the computer in the study rang out. The desktop computer in the study. The very same desktop computer that Jared was certain he had left off since the previous night. He walked in and looked at the screen.
-------------
To: Jared Tennon<jtennon@firstnational.com>
From: HcK2!y<:)@13749.13>
Subject: :)

:)
P.S. Please don't use any other. And please check your mail.
-------------
Jared's heart was racing. He turned off the monitor and walked to his room on shaking, unsteady legs. It took 4 sleeping pills before he finally closed his eyes.

For the next 12 days, his computer had the same problems. He told everyone at work to hold back on sending anything to him until they were fixed. The content of the messages Jared received while he wasn't using his computer were as follows:

Sunday: :(
Monday: :)
Tuesday: :(
Wednesday: :)
Thursday: :(
Friday: :)
Saturday: :(
Sunday: :)
Monday: :(
Tuesday: :)
Wednesday: :(
Thursday: :)

On Thursday night, he called in a computer engineer to have his desktop PC examined. The engineer pressed the power button, and the computer booted up normally. It passed every performance test it was supposed to, and all programs were running smoothly. "Do me a favor, Mr. Tennon," said the engineer, "call me again when you have any real problems." He packed up his equipment and walked out. Jared could see his van driving away through the window in his study. He went to bed puzzled, again neglecting his e-mail and leaving his computer well alone.

The Friday of his wedding anniversary, Jared took the day off from work to make sure everything was in order for a romantic night between Claire and him. At 7:00 P.M., the presents had been purchased and the dinner had been fully prepared. After dinnertime, Claire gave Jared his present: a brand new, top-quality Rolex. Jared got up from the table and told Claire to wait where she was. "Close your eyes, I want to make it a surprise," said Jared as he walked over to get her gift. 5 minutes passed, and he still hadn't returned. Claire was beginning to worry. She walked over to the study door, knowing that he kept most of her gifts in there, and opened the door. There was a loud thump as Claire fainted onto the hardwood study floor.

Sitting decapitated in the corner of the room was Jared, body propped up against one of the walls fully clothed. All over the walls, and puddled on the ground beneath him were dark splotches of blood. On the computer to the left of him, a message was displayed with a picture of the corner of the same dark grey room as the first e-mail, with a ":(" flashing every 4 seconds in the corner of the image.

Carved on the wall next to Jared's body was a vertical list of the senders of each e-mail he had received:

C vh04
H 6my8
E hl2s3
C FY8i
K cRu6
Y tuS3
O q2yU
U TE9w
R j9cU
C 7haT
O qAk6
R geS4
N K2wr
E cRA6
R 8UtA
. seT6